The present invention relates generally to seat structure, and more specifically, to seat structure for the forward portion of a front mounted mower which pivots away from the floor to allow access to components located below the seat.
In a vehicle such as a front mounted mower, transmission and power take-off components are generally located directly below the seat, and the seat limits access to these components. In a typical arrangement such as provided on the John Deere Model 915 Front Mounted Mower and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,508, the seat is hinged at its forward extremity and may be pivoted forwardly and upwardly until the seat back contacts the steering wheel which is supported from an upright column directly in front of the seat. A seat latching mechanism maintains the seat in a preselected one of a plurality of positions. Although such an arrangement provides some seat control and access to the area between the engine and the implement, full access is impeded by the seat which still angles upwardly over the opening. Another type of seat structure for providing access to an opening below the operator station is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,602 wherein a seat assembly is mounted on a pair of fore-and-aft spaced shafts and includes a pair of latches to selectively release the seat structure and to permit the seat to be rotated upwardly and rearwardly to rest on a portion of the vehicle behind the operator station. Although such an arrangement provides better access to the area below the operator station, at least two latches are required which add to the complexity of the structure, and no positive support is provided for maintaining the structure in the various positions of rotation relative to the two pivotal axes. Since the seat comes to rest on a portion of the vehicle itself, there is a potential for damaging the vehicle structure if the seat should be released prematurely before coming to rest in the final acess position.
With some rear-folding seat arrangements, adjustment of the seat to a rearward position to accomodate a tall operator sometimes causes interference between the seat and the portion of the vehicle immediately adjacent the rear portion of the seat during pivoting of the seat structure to the access position. Therefore, it may be necessary to provide an additional step of re-adjusting the seat forwardly before the seat can be moved to provide access to the components below the operator station.